Hannah Dowling

On Thursday, Qantas announced that it would ‘stand down’ a majority of its 30,000 strong workforce, putting 20,000 workers into a state of flux until “at least” the end of May 2020.

As of today, Qantas has temporarily diverted its flagship route, the QF1 flight from Sydney to London, to fly via in Darwin rather than Singapore, as COVID-19 travel restrictions continue to affect the aviation services industry.

Qantas shifted forward two flights to Christchurch on Sunday to avoid the start of New Zealand’s self-isolation coronavirus restrictions, Australian Aviation can reveal.

Angry Qantas’ passengers were forced to wait two hours to speak to the airline’s customer service helpline on Monday.

An Adelaide-based aviation technology company conducted the first flight in South Australian skies in an electric plane this week, as it ramps up to become Australia’s first manufacturer of electric aircraft.

Pel-Air has landed a 10-year contract to provide five fixed-wing planes, pilots and engineering support to NSW Ambulance from January 2022.